Eleanor Bartsch, violin
Danny Kim, viola
Lester Pines, narrator
Christopher Ramaekers, conductor
Eleanor Bartsch, violin
Danny Kim, viola
Lester Pines, narrator
Christopher Ramaekers, conductor
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World", Op. 95 (1893)
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E♭ major, K. 364 (1779), featuring Eleanor Bartsch and Danny Kim
Copland: Lincoln Portrait (1942), featuring Lester Pines
Praised for her “clarion tone and technical aplomb” (Chicago Classical Review), Eleanor Bartsch joined the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra’s first violin section in 2024. Bartsch is also first violinist of the Chicago-based Kontras Quartet with whom she has toured the US and Europe, recorded two albums, made frequent appearances live on classical WFMT Chicago 98.7 and held residencies at multiple US higher learning institutions. She is a performing member and frequent principal player of the Chicago Philharmonic where she also serves on the board of directors.
Prior to her appointment at Lyric, Bartsch was concertmaster of the Dubuque Symphony from 2016-2023 and associate concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony since 2015. She has additionally led the Chicago Philharmonic, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater Orchestra and many others. She has appeared as a regular guest with the Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Music of the Baroque and the Knights. As a soloist, she has performed with many regional Midwest orchestras including the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Dubuque Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic and others.
A passionate educator and ambassador of music, Bartsch is Professor of Violin and Head of Strings at Elmhurst University. She has additionally taught hundreds of music learners of all ages as a private instructor, chamber and orchestral coach, masterclass clinician, pre-concert lecturer and through participation in many meaningful community engagement initiatives.
Bartsch co-founded Madison, Wisconsin’s Willy Street Chamber Players, an award-winning ensemble and summer festival with an emphasis on creating community through classical music. She is a frequent guest with chamber ensembles, series and festivals nationwide.
Born into a family of professional musicians and music educators, Bartsch began violin lessons at the age of 4 in her hometown of St. Paul, MN. She received her master’s degrees in violin performance with a graduate certificate in business entrepreneurship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying violin with David Perry as a Paul Collins Distinguished Graduate Fellow. Bartsch also received her bachelor’s degree from UW-Madison with Perry. During that time, she spent summers studying with Paul Kantor at the Aspen Music Festival and won tenured positions with the Madison Symphony and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Her previous teachers were Ellen Kim and Young-Nam Kim.
Violist Danny Kim joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the start of the 2016-2017 season and was appointed third chair of the viola section during the 2017-18 season. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Kim completed his undergraduate degree at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Sally Chisholm and graduated with a B.A. in viola performance and a certificate in East Asian Studies.
He earned his Master of Music in viola performance from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Samuel Rhodes. Prior to winning a position with the Boston Symphony, Kim was a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. An alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he won the Maurice Schwartz Prize, he has participated in such festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Lucerne, Aspen, and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. As an avid chamber musician, he has performed with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Ensemble Connect, Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Concordia Chamber Players, and has collaborated with artists including Joseph Silverstein, Peter Wiley, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, Marcy Rosen, Richard O’Neill among others. Kim is also a chamber music coach and teacher and serves on faculty at Boston University and the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute in Minnesota. He previously completed a chamber music residency with El Sistema in Caracas, Venezuela. As a judge and jury member for music competitions and auditions, he has sat on panels with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and New England Conservatory.
Committed to education and community engagement, Kim has performed on Sesame Street and participates in the BSO’s many community engagement performances and educational activities. He served as a tenured member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra while earning his undergraduate degree. Kim was also one of the first musicians to participate in the Boston Symphony-Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra musician exchange, joining the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany during the 2018-19 season.
A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Lester Pines is a respected advocate who concentrates his practice on civil and criminal trials, arbitrations, and civil appeals. For decades he has appeared in state and federal trial courts and before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Wisconsin governors have relied on him for legal advocacy and advice, as did President Obama who sought his assistance for a friend in need of legal counsel in Wisconsin. In 1976 at the request of Wisconsin's governor, Lester, who had been an attorney for just over a year, negotiated the resolution of a prison uprising, ensuring the release of over a dozen hostages who were being held by armed prisoners in a barricaded building. Throughout his career, he has displayed that same level of confidence, skill, and courage on behalf of his clients.
Lester has tried and resolved numerous personal injury and commercial claims. He has represented clients in significant civil cases about the interpretation of Wisconsin's constitution and amendments to it, in race, sex, and LGBTQ discrimination matters, about restrictions on the right to vote, in defense of employees' rights, and to protect women's access to reproductive health care. In his criminal law practice, among many other cases, he has regularly defended public employees. For over 30 years he has been counsel to Madison's teachers' union and also represents the Service Employees International Union (SEIU Wisconsin), the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA) and the Office & Professional Employees Union, Local 39 (OPEIU).
A host of Lester's Wisconsin appellate cases have addressed high-profile public policy matters. In 2020, representing Governor Tony Evers, he convinced the Wisconsin Supreme Court in SEIU v Vos (2020 WI 67) that the legislature's attempt to disrupt the executive branch by imposing onerous burdens on the Governor's provision of advice and guidance about statutes, rules and regulations to Wisconsin's citizens was unconstitutional.
For many years he was an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, teaching pre-trial civil advocacy. Lester is often called upon to speak before a variety of audiences on a host of legal issues and is one of the most written about and quoted attorneys in Wisconsin. National media as well, including the New York Times, have quoted him. In September 2017, he was featured in cover story in the Isthmus, a Madison weekly paper which you can read here: https://isthmus.com/news/cover-story/lester-pines-draws-on-faith-and-family-in-his-practice-and-b/